Steam’s most-played new game of 2016 Paladins now in free open beta on PS4, Xbox One
Hi-Rez Studios has announced it is bringing its popular PC shooter Paladins to the PS4 and Xbox One as an open beta. Players are now able to access the open beta for free; all they need to do is download the game.
The fantasy team-based shooter was the most-played new game on Steam for 2016, where it garnered 8.5 million PC players. The game is still in its Early Access stage on the platform, but is free to play.
Paladins has 24 playable Champions that can customized with a variety of offensive or defensive abilities. Champions can also be visually customized through the use of in-game cosmetic items.
To find out more about how the game will transition to consoles, we interviewed Hi-Rez Studios co-founder and chief executive officer Todd Harris, who also serves Paladins executive producer.
“From the beginning, we designed the UI so that it would look good sitting on your couch,” Harris said. “This was actually a learning from Smite.”
Harris also detailed the gameplay changes HiRez made to make Paladins better suited to console play, such as tweaking Champions’ turnspeed and giving players the option to customize controller layouts for specific Champions.
HiRez has announced a console-based Paladins tournament titled Console Wars, which will be hosted at DreamHack Valencia 2017. The event will pit the best PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Paladins teams against each other, hence the name of the tournament. Players who wish to compete can enter the open bracket qualifiers, to be hosted May 20 until June 25. The top teams on PS4 and Xbox One from North America and Europe will be able to compete. More information, including how to register, is available on the Paladins esports website.
